


dawn

by TheRedshirtWhoLived



Series: Tales from the Spectrum [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Arcanist Warrior of Light, Banter, Carbuncles, Companionable Snark, Family Fluff, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, rogue warrior of light - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:09:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29811696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedshirtWhoLived/pseuds/TheRedshirtWhoLived
Summary: Maeve and Saewynn Rivers, Annette Lanverlais, Mimiya Miya, Rhaya Bajhiri, and Annette Lanverlais will be legends one day.For now, they're just six adventurers walking into bars across Eorzea.Follow their journey from those bars to the farthest reaches of the star and beyond as they discover what it means to be Warriors of Light.
Relationships: Warrior of Light & Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: Tales from the Spectrum [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2191401
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to my FFXIV longfic! This is going to span the ENTIRE MSQ, with additional bits from things like the Crystal Tower and the class/role quests. I really hope you guys like it.
> 
> Please don't hesitate to leave a comment! 
> 
> I'll update the tags, relationship, and rating as the fic progresses.

“And so, by the power vested in me as Acting Guildmaster of Mealvaan’s Gate, I hereby declare you, Maeve Elawyn Rivers, a master of the art of arcanima. Your dedication and skill are a credit to your guild, your teachers, and yourself. Congratulations.” With that, Thubyrgeim slid an ornate silver ring with an opal setting onto Maeve’s finger. Maeve could not stop smiling. That ring represented the culmination of twelve years of very hard work, and she had never been happier to receive a piece of jewelry in her life. 

As Thubyrgeim squeezed Maeve’s hand, the small audience burst into applause. An ear-splitting whistle drew her attention over to her sister Saewynn. Saewynn grinned ear to ear as she waved a sign with “CONGRATULATIONS, MAEVE!” written on it in big green letters. Maeve quickly thanked Thubyrgeim before running off the stage into her sister’s arms. Her carbuncles, Raelle and Aura, scampered along behind her, little legs churning away to keep up with Maeve’s longer strides. 

Laughing uproariously, Saewynn swept Maeve off her feet and whirled her around before setting her down. “I’m so proud o’ ye, Maeve!” her sister crowed. 

Maeve ducked her head and blushed at the praise. “Thanks, Wynn. I really couldn’t have done it without yer help.” 

“Well, c’mon, then, lemme look at the ring!” Without waiting for Maeve to respond, Saewynn snatched up Maeve’s hand and turned it this way and that, admiring the way the opal caught the bright Limsan sun and turned it into little rainbows. “Huh,” Saewynn commented. “I’d’ve thought they’d give ye a gemstone for the carbuncles.” Raelle chirped in agreement, while Aura made the low chittering that Maeve had learned indicated her amusement.

Maeve fished two pieces of dried, candied pineapple out of her pocket and fed them to her carbuncles. “And what has you so amused, Aura dear?” she cooed.

 _Like you need another carbuncle_ , Aura replied. _After all, Raelle and I do everything that needs doing well enough_. 

Maeve chuckled and bent down to scritch the topaz carbuncle between her long, floppy ears. Aura let out a jangling purr and nuzzled into the touch. Raelle butted up against Maeve’s other hand, so Maeve gave her some pets, too.

Saewynn rolled her eyes at the spectacle. “Ye spoil those beasties rotten, Maeve, ye really do.”

“This coming from the woman who steals ginger biscuits whenever that Ul’dahn grocer comes through just because Raelle makes beggy eyes at her?”

Saewynn snorted and waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Raelle’s beggy eyes are very effective. So, oh mistress of arcanima, what do ye want to do now? It’s hotter than Ifrit’s arsecrack out here, and I’m just wearin’ a light shirt and trousers. Ye’ve got to be roastin’ in that fancy overcoat o’ yers.”

Maeve looked down at her steel-blue wool assessor’s coat, better suited for inspecting ships moored in the harbor and deflecting stray sparks in the laboratory than a casual stroll down a Limsan avenue. The rush of the ceremony was wearing off, and already Maeve could feel the uncomfortable clamminess of sweat collecting at her elbows. She unbuttoned her coat and tied it around her waist. Beneath, she wore a neatly pressed cotton blouse much better suited to the summer heat. 

“Want to head to Baderon’s?” Maeve asked. “’E’s been talkin’ up this new mead ‘e brought in from Aleport, and I’d like to see if it’s everythin’ he claims.”

Saewynn linked arms with Maeve, and they started walking towards the Drowned Wench. “And the fact that Baderon gives ye a discount on everythin’ after ye helped rig the beer barrels to keep the drinks cold has nothin’ ta do with it, I’m sure!” teased Saewynn.

Maeve shrugged. “What can I say?” she replied nonchalantly. “I do enjoy appreciatin’ the fruits o’ me labors.”

* * *

Baderon looked up at the _creeak_ of the door to the Drowning Wench to see Saewynn and Maeve burst in, laughing. “Afternoon, lasses!” he called, waving the rag he’d been using to wipe down the bar by way of greeting. “What can I get the two prettiest adventurers in Limsa Lominsa on this fine summer’s day?”

Saewynn bundled Maeve over to the bar. “Two pints of your best, Baderon, and put it on my tab. My little sister’s a master arcanist!” she cheered.

A bright smile slowly spread over Baderon’s craggy face. “Why, congratulations, Maeve! Why, it seems only yesterday that I was teachin’ ye your sums and ye were helpin’ me balance the books! And now yer a real live master arcanist with the ring and everythin’! For this occasion, it’s on the house.” He turned to the kegs looming in a neat row behind the bar and poured them two glasses of the mead Maeve had expressed an interest in. Then, he grabbed a pair of saucers and filled them with more mead before placing them in front of Raelle and Aura. Raelle cheeped out a quick thank you before sipping neatly at the golden liquid. Aura let out an earsplitting yowl and guzzled it down.

Maeve rolled her eyes. “I’m _so_ sorry about Aura. Clearly, I must have been drunk when I was drawing the arrays for her table manners.” 

Baderon snickered. “Ah, it’s no skin off me nose, lass. So, what are ye doin’ ta celebrate?”

Maeve shrugged and sipped at her mead. “Well, the plan was to finish me mead, then ask ye if there were any tasks as needed an adventurer to do ‘em.”

 _Thunk._ Saewynn’s forehead collided with the bar as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Sister mine,” she groaned, “are ya tellin’ me that your plans to celebrate the result of two years of work are _more work?_ ” 

“Magitek’s _expensive_ , Wynn, ya know that!” Maeve exclaimed. “And I already had to write six different grant applications to get the guild to pay for all those conjury and thaumaturgy materials. I don’t think they’ll be givin’ me more gil anytime soon.”

Saewynn reached over and ruffled Maeve’s hair. “How is it,” she groused, “that I’m the one who practically raised ye and you’re the responsible one in the family?”

Maeve smiled innocently. “Why, Saewynn, I just watched what ye did and then did th’ exact opposite.”

Saewynn snorted. “Walked right into that one, I did. Well, Maeve, if ye’re bound an’ determined to celebrate by takin’ an adventurin’ job, I may as well come with ye. Who knows, mebbe I can ‘elp ye get this done in time to get ye back to the Sisters. Jacke’s throwin’ ye another surprise party.” She laughed at the look of trepidation that crossed Maeve’s face at the mention of Jacke and surprise parties in the same sentence. “Don’ worry, Maeve! I talked to ‘im, and ‘e promised me no scares.”

 _Good,_ Aura growled. _I hope he knows that if he makes Mama faint again I’m going to set him on fire._

Saewynn chuckled and gave the topaz carbuncle the last of her mead. “I may ‘ave mentioned somethin’ to that effect, ye little gremlin.”

Maeve shook her head at their display. “I’m not sure which of ye is a worse influence on the other,” she commented. “So, Baderon, what manner o’ job d’ye ‘ave for us?”

Baderon pulled out a large, well-worn ledger and opened it. “Well, ‘ow’d ye fancy a trip outside the city walls?” he asked. “All the studyin’ ye’ve been doin’, lass, fresh air will do ye some good.” Maeve opened her mouth to protest, but a warning chirp from Raelle kept her silent. “I’d like ye to visit an orchard by the name o’ Summerford Farms,” Baderon continued. “The owner, Staelwyrn, is an old mate o’ mine.”

Maeve nodded. “Aye, I know ‘im. ‘E’s been askin’ me about a coldbox for his dairy.”

Baderon dipped his head in acknowledgment of Maeve’s words. “Well, Staelwyrn’s got other things to think about than a coldbox, Maeve. ‘E’s got himself a crew o’ mostly reformed pirate types, if ye can believe that.”

Saewynn absently inspected one of her daggers. “I’ll believe the mostly part.”

“It was a rhetorical question, Saewynn! ‘E’s been tryin’ to bring a bit o’ life back to the fields after the Calamity ruined the soil. ‘E mentioned needin’ another ‘and or two, and yer names sprang to mind.” Both sisters shot him a quelling look, and Baderon held up his hands in an effort to placate them. “I know, I know, ye’re not farmhands. But from what Staelwyrn said, this isn’t a job for farmhands. It’s a job for adventurers. Interested?”

Maeve downed the last of her mead and shook Baderon’s hand. “Very. Now, where’s the orchard?”

* * *

Staelwyrn, a tall Roegadyn in a purple jerkin and eye patch, greeted Saewynn and Maeve with a relieved grin. “Two lasses, one with red hair, the other with daggers…Would ye be the Rivers sisters?”

Saewynn nodded firmly and stepped forward to shake his hand. “Aye. I’m Saewynn, and that’s Maeve. Baderon said ye had a problem as needed an adventurer or two?”

The big man nodded and ushered them into his humble cottage, inviting them to sit down at a rough-hewn table. “There’s been a lot of strange vanishin’s lately. Aye, citizens have been disappearin’ from every corner of Limsa Lominsa, as if plucked from the face of Hydaelyn, boots and all, by an unseen hand.”

Maeve frowned. “I’d heard some of the guildmasters talkin’ about it, but I was finishin’ my thesis, so I didn’t really pay attention. Has anyone gone missin’ out here?”

Staelwyrn shook his head. “No, thank the Navigator. But it seems a collection of right unsavory fellows with azure-tattooed faces has been creepin’ up to the edges of the fields and spyin’ on my yeomen. Now, I doubt anyone would enjoy bein’ scrutinized by such savages at the best of times, but the farmhands are convinced that they’re the kidnappers of rumor, come for their hides. Needless to say, they’re beside ‘emselves with worry, and their work’s sufferin’ for it-which is the very last thing I need when my old crewmen are still gettin’ used to their new jobs. ‘Tis a struggle to get ‘em to leave the farmhouse of a mornin’.” He paused, leaning forward in his seat. “That is, as they say, where you come in. Would you be willin’ to investigate these tattooed thugs for me?”

Saewynn nodded. “I can do that.”

A relieved smile split Staelwyrn’s craggy features. “My thanks. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the sooner this place will start to resemble a workin’ farm again. I suggest you begin by havin’ a look around Seasong Grotto. If reports are to be believed, our unwelcome visitors have occupied the place.”

Saewynn got up to leave, but a cleared throat stopped her with her hand on the doorknob. She turned around to find Maeve, Raelle, and Aura looking at her with identical miffed expressions. “It is _disturbing_ how much those creatures look like you even if they don’t have noses,” Saewynn muttered. “I suppose you three want to come along, don’t you?”

Maeve nodded. 

“I suppose you know I’m going to tell you that this job is going to require stealth and I’m sneakier than you?”

Raelle nodded.

“And I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to talk you out of coming along anyway?”

Aura nodded. 

“All right, fine! Let’s go, before I change my mind.”

* * *

Seasong Grotto was just as Maeve remembered, a stone monument that gave off a soft green glow ensconced in a cave low in the gently rolling hills of La Noscea. Despite Staelwyrn’s warning, the area appeared to be deserted, and she and Saewynn approached cautiously. Maeve stared up at the ancient poem chiseled upon the monument, while Saewynn peered into the flickering shadows, daggers drawn. 

_“I am the waves that bear, I am the winds that guide. I am the evening stars. I am the morning sky. I am born of the sea and there I shall die.”_ Maeve yelped and quickly readied a Ruin, while Saewynn pulled a throwing knife from her boot and flung it in the mysterious voice’s direction. Raelle and Aura chittered frantically. 

“Thus reads the Sailor’s Requiem carved into yonder stone.” The voice rang through the cavern again, this time from the entrance, its owner apparently unperturbed by the razor-sharp blade flung in her direction. The sisters whirled to find an elegant Mi’qote woman with a strange device slung around her neck. Maeve vaguely remembered seeing something similar in one of her books, but she could not recall any details. 

The stranger just smiled at them, white-furred ears twitching in slight amusement. “Such words well describe the manner in which the citizens of Limsa Lominsa live their lives.” She walked forward, brushing past Maeve and running elegant fingers over the carvings. “It is both a litany against misfortune for those out on the waves,” she mused, “and a prayer that the souls of those who perish on land might find their way back to the sea.” She cocked her head, looking Maeve and Saewynn up and down in a blink of an eye. “I apologize for startling you so, adventurers. What brings you to this sacred place of seafarers, if I may ask?” 

“None of yer swivin’ business,” Saewynn growled, grey eyes flashing. “Now talk, fast, afore I turn ye into a pincushion!” 

Maeve couldn’t repress her shiver as the stranger turned her eerie green eyes on Saewynn. Her smile never wavered, and she reached for no weapon, but Maeve couldn’t shake the feeling that the entire situation was playing out exactly as this stranger wished. 

“You would be the adventurer I have seen around Limsa, then,” the stranger commented before glancing at Maeve. “You, however, I am unfamiliar with. At any rate, I came here thinking myself on the trail of the kidnappers, but it would seem I have missed my mark.” 

Pebbles fell from the ceiling as something _roared_ outside, and Maeve turned to find the largest goobbue she’d ever seen barreling into the grotto, vines and skinny arms flopping about. A trace of annoyance creased the stranger’s brow. “Or…perhaps not,” she sighed. “As I suspected, the aetheric disturbance here is no natural occurrence. Nor is it a coincidence that the three of us should come here in search of those responsible for the disappearances only to be attacked. But who stands to benefit from the keeping of this secret?” 

The goobbue must not have found the stranger’s intelligence very impressive. It roared in their faces again, and a fleck of spittle landed on the stranger’s shoulder. She brushed it off, glaring at the monster. “Such thoughts must wait,” she snapped. “Let us attend to the task at hand, unpleasant though it may be.” 

“That’s the first damn thing ye’ve said that made a lick o’ sense!” exclaimed Saewynn. “You two, keep that thing distracted!” Before either one of them could respond, Saewynn fished a smoke bomb from the pouch on her belt and threw it to the floor. By the time the fog cleared, Saewynn was gone. 

Maeve sighed and fired off _Ruin_. The spell detonated square in the goobbue’s face, and it reeled back, bellowing in confusion. The stranger took the opportunity to tear a slab of rock from the grotto’s floor and push it into the monster’s fleshy stomach. It staggered, and then Saewynn reappeared. The rogue jumped up, pushed off a rock at the side of the cave, and vaulted onto the goobbue’s back. Her daggers struck deep and true, and the goobbue crumpled. Saewynn rode it downward and hopped off as it hit the dirt, dead as a doornail. 

Something glimmered in the corner of Maeve’s eye, and she turned to find a glowing blue crystal lying in front of the monument. Finding herself unable to look away, she knelt down to pick it up. 

The moment her fingers touched the crystal’s cool surface, the world blurred, and Maeve’s spine turned to water. As blackness grew at the edges of her vision, she saw Saewynn lunge towards her, trying to grab the crystal. Their hands brushed, then Saewynn’s eyes widened in shock before she fainted. Maeve tried to reach for her, only for the ground to sway and rush up to meet her. As she passed out, Maeve couldn’t help but think that perhaps today, she should have taken the day off. 


End file.
